Volatile Flavor Compounds of Myoga (Zingiber Mioga).

Myoganative to South Asia is one of the most popular spices in Japan.It has a pleasant characteristic aroma on which no investigations have been reported to our knowledge.This paper reports on the identification of volatile components of myoga by GC and GC-MS.Thirty kilograms of young buds of fresh myoga harvested in Gumma prefecture were sliced and mixed with 108 kg of distilled water.The mixture was distilled under reduced pressure (28°C & 25mmHg), and 43kg of the distillate was saturated with sodium chloride and thenextracted with ethyl ether.The extract, after drying over Na2SO4, was concentrated to give 594mg of flavor concentrate with a good myoga aroma.The flavor concentrate was separated into hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds by column chromatography, using a 15 mmi.d.x 200 mmcolumn packed with silica gel.Pentane (500ml) and ethyl ether (500ml) were used as solvents.The oxygenated fraction was further separated into two fractions with pentane-ethyl ether (95 : 5, v/v) and ethyl ether, these fractions then being analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).Identification was made by comparing and matching the mass data and GCretention times with those of authentic compounds.GC was run on a Shimadzu GC-9Aequipped with FID, FTD, FPD and a 0.25mm i.d.x 60m fused silica capillary column coated with PEG 20M.The temperature was